Spiney Lizards, Sceloporus, are among the most numerous and commonly seen Iguanid Lizards in North and Central America. However while some species are extremely common and widespread, others have much more localized populations and lower mumbers, making them vulnerable to extinction. Goldman's Bunchgrass Lizard, Sceloporus goldmani, is known only from two areas in the arid grasslands of northwest Mexico, one straddling the border between Nuevo León and San Luis Potosi states and the second in southern Coahuila State. However no Lizards have been seen at the second site for some years and the grassland there has largely been converted to agricultural land. Due to the small area inhabited by the species and its decreasing range it is currently considered to be Endangered under the terms of the
International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species.
In a paper published in the journal Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad on 31 October 2016, Rubén Alonso Carbajal-Márquez of the Departamento de Conservación de la Biodiversidad at the Unidad Chetumal and Conservación de la Biodiversidad del Centro de México and Gustavo Ernesto Quintero-Díaz, also of Conservación de la Biodiversidad del Centro de México and of the Centro de Ciencias Básicas of the Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes, describe four new, previously undescribed, populations from Mexico.
Dorsal view of male (A) and female (B) specimens of Sceloporus goldmani. Carbajal-Márquez & Quintero-Díaz (2016).
Carbajal-Márquez and Quintero-Díaz were unable to locate the species at either of the previous known locations, however they did locate the Lizards at four locations where it had not previously been recorded, in San Luis Potosi, Aguascalientes, Jalisco and Zacatecas states.
Locations where Sceloporus goldmani was found; the most southerly points represent new records from San Luis Potosi, Aguascalientes, Jalisco and Zacatecas states. Points in the center and north represent the previously known locations in Coahuila, Nuevo León and San Luis Potosi states. The ploted area represents the range recorded on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species.
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